


Living Flames

by Trey



Category: One Piece
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-29 04:46:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13919685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trey/pseuds/Trey
Summary: Returning home after the events of Dressrosa Sabo has difficulties controlling the flames of the Mera Mera no Mi. They won't do as he wants them to and at times it seems like they have a will of their own: They mock and sabotage him now and then but at other times - when he is in danger - those same flames protect Sabo fiercer than he himself ever could.Over time Sabo discovers by what - or by whom - the flames of the Mera Mera no Mi are really controlled.





	Living Flames

Sabo stared frustrated at his hand. He was not trying to archive anything special or even difficult. All he wanted to do, was lighting the candle in front of him. But, no matter how hard he tried, no flames would lick on his fingers. He frowned angrily at his hand.   
Why wouldn’t it work?  
It _should_ work.   
But there was no sign of a fire. Furiously he punched the table in front of him, took the lighter that laid next to the candle and lit the candle.   
It had been a whole month now, since he ate the Mera Mera no Mi, and still he had trouble to control the flames that were a part of him. He hated it. And he was angry. He was angry at himself for failing to control the flame, angry at the flames that just wouldn’t do what he wanted them to and he was angry at Ace for making Sabo eat this stupid Devil Fruit.   
He sighed as he took out the report he had to finish.   
He knew he wasn’t really angry at Ace – never could be – but it was just so frustrating. He knew from other Devil Fruit users – even others who ate a Logia type one – that it shouldn’t be this hard. Everyone he had talked to had said to him that they just had known how to use their fruit. It had been instinct. They might have had some trouble to control it and stop themselves from using their power for the first few days, but none had said anything about not being able to use their powers when they wanted to. Not like Sabo.   
Ever since he had come back from Dressrosa, his Devil Fruit had started to act up. In Dressrosa, during the fighting, he had no trouble with his new powers. In contrary, it had been nearly to easy. The flames had reacted as soon as he had noticed a threat – any threat at all – and protected him. He hadn’t even had to formulate his thoughts and what he wanted his flames to do, before they had eliminated the threat. Back then Sabo had attributed it to those instincts, the other Devil Fruit users had talked about. And it had been awesome. He had felt unstoppable feeling the flames curse through his body. And even more important: He had felt whole for the first time since he had lost his memories.   
With his memories lost he had never known what it was that was missing – just that something had left a gaping hole in his chest, that nothing seemed to be able to fill. The friends he had made with the revolutionaries had helped, but they had never been able to completely fill the hole. Then, when he had remembered, it had been too late. He had remembered what it was he was missing, but he would never be able to get it back. Because what had been missing his whole life had been his brothers. And when he had remembered, Ace had already been dead.   
He had grieved his brother. His brother who would never know that Sabo was still alive. It had torn the hole in his chest wide open again. Whatever the friends, he had made, had done to fill it, had been for nothing in this instant. Meeting Luffy had helped and the pain in his chest had decreased. But, only when he had eaten the Mera Mera no Mi and felt like Ace was right there with him, had the pain finally disappeared.   
He still felt guilty and he knew the guilt would never go away, as long as he lived at least, but no longer did he feel like every breath burned him inside out. Because he had felt forgiveness when he had eaten the fruit. And he believed in his heart that it was Ace who had been trying to tell him that it was _okay_. But still it did not take away the guilt. It only pushed it into the back of his mind where it resurfaced from in lonely times like this.   
He pushed the thought away again – he had work to do, after all, and a Devil Fruit to learn to control – and brushed away a tear that had made its way down his right cheek. Just as his fingers touched his wet cheek a fire erupted from both of his hands. Cursing Sabo fell back with his chair. His head collided hurtful with the wooden floor and the report he had had halfway finished went up in flames.   
Still cursing Sabo got up from the ground, rubbing the back of his head. Shouldn’t being a Logia-type Devil Fruit user prevent him from hurting like that?  
One look at the report told him all he needed to know: It was not salvageable. He would have to do it from scratch. It was not the first time this had happened and it was the one thing he hated the most about his new powers. Because it seemed to him that – ever since he came back from Dressrose – he had to do all his work twice.  
But at least the sadness was gone. Replaced with frustration. 

 

Sabo was on a mission. It had been quite a while since his last one – Dressrosa, to be precise – and he was happy to get away from their base for a while. Since he still was not able to control his fire Dragon had been reluctant to let his Chief of Staff go into another fight, keeping Sabo instead cooped up in the base. Sabo had fought tooth and nails against Dragon on this decision. He was still able to fight, after all – had been before he ate the Mera Mera no Mi, too.   
But still, Dragon was cautious.   
“What if you hurt one of ours with your flames?”, he had said.   
And how had Sabo been supposed to argue with that? The only reason Dragon had let him finally go was because – even if he sometimes seemed to have no control at all over his own flames – they never had harmed anyone that wasn’t an enemy. That was pretty much the only thing Sabo felt sure about his flames. And that they mostly seem to work in fights – even though not always.  
Since his flames were this unreliable Sabo had never even started to rely on them. That was why he had a firm grip on his pipe right now. His weapon of choice was reliable in ways his flames probably never would be.   
In the exact moment he had thought that, flames erupted from his fists, playing around his fingers in an almost protective way. They also seemed to Sabo to be pouting. He shook his head while he continued to run.   
He was losing his mind if he started to imagine his flames to have their own will. Although it would explain quite a lot about their strange behaviour.   
Sabo came to a halt. The road in front of him was blocked by marines. Normally he would not be disinclined to a fight, but he was in a hurry. The ship containing the slaves he was meant to save would leave in a few minutes and he still had to go quite a distance. Since there seemed to be a lot of marines in front of him – more than he could jump over – he turned around, hoping to find another route that wasn’t blocked, yet. But behind him even more marines waited now.   
It was a trap, he realized.   
Cursing he readied himself for a fight. He just hoped Koala would have more luck with her part of sabotaging the transport of the slaves to the ship. Maybe then he could still get there in time.   
When the first marine attacked, Sabo was ready and blocked the attack using his pipe. Then he hit his opponent in the gut, making him fall over backwards. He defeated one after the other, trying to ward of his attackers who came at him from every direction. He thought about using his fire but he assumed it would not work – his flames had a habit of doing that whenever it was most inconvenient for Sabo. He would just have to fight of the marines like he used to do before eating the Mera Mera no Mi.   
A cry in his back made him turn around, his pipe ready to ward of any attack. He saw a sword coming down on him and he knew he did not have enough time to ward of the attack. He could only hope he would be able to turn his body into flames. He didn’t even think about attacking with his fire.   
And it was then, as his flames attacked the marine soldier that dared attack Sabo – and was there really a voice in Sabo’s head snarling angrily at the marine or was he just imagining it? – that Sabo finally realized that he had no control whatsoever over those flames of the Mera Mera no Mi. Whenever the flames had acted on their own accord before, Sabo had attributed it to instincts – he had mostly thought about using his powers at those times, so it had seemed logical – but now there was _no way_ the flames acted because of Sabo’s instincts. Because none of his instincts had thought about attacking with fire. Instead they had thought about defending himself.   
And so, Sabo watched frozen to the spot as the marine soldier flew across the street into the wall of a building. Cracks appeared on the concrete wall and Sabo was sure the man had broken more than a few bones. More soldiers attacked, shouting about Devil Fruits, but Sabo still couldn’t move.  
 _Who – or what – was controlling the flames that coursed through Sabo’s veins?_  
Standing unmoving on a battlefield, in the middle of a fight, would prove fatal to pretty much everyone, no matter how strong. But, right then and there, Sabo was an exception to that rule. Flames raged around him, coursing around and through his body, burning and attacking everyone that came into a two-step radius of Sabo.   
And the whole time Sabo just stood there – in the centre of the inferno unfolding between the surrounding buildings – watching.   
He felt stupid. How could he not have realized it before? How could it have taken him this long to realize it?  
He always thought his flames had listened to his will sometimes. Maybe if he had been desperate enough or when he hadn’t had time to think long enough to even realize what he was trying to do. Instead they had _never_ listened to him. It just happened at times that the one controlling his flames had the same goal as Sabo. Just as he seemed to be determined to not let anyone come near to Sabo right now.   
_Who was that? Who controlled Sabo’s flames?_  
It was terrifying to imagine someone else to have such power over Sabo’s body. Up until now this person – whoever it was – seemed to be friendly towards Sabo and his friends. But what if that ever changed? How could Sabo ever be sure his own flames would not attack one of his friends when he didn’t look? How could he surrender his life and that of everyone who trusted him to some stranger this easily?  
As the last marine fell those flames, which seemed so strange and alien to Sabo now, even if they originated from his body, disappeared. Only small flames licked at his fingers which gripped his pipe with such force it hurt.   
As Sabo ran off to the harbour – because he knew he had no time to think about this right now – he tried to shake of even the last flicker of those flames but they just wouldn’t be extinguished. Instead it seemed the flames sticked even closer to his hand, which made Sabo just shake his hands more frenetic. And still the flames wouldn’t disappear. They were a part of him, after all. _A part of him he had no control over._  
For a moment it felt like they wanted to comfort Sabo, but he shook that feeling. He couldn’t trust his flames.   
_What had gone wrong when he had eaten his Devil Fruit?_

 

A few weeks later Sabo had somehow come to term with his flames not being controlled by him. He still didn’t like it – hated it in fact – but he had accepted it for now. After all, it wasn’t like he had another choice. And at least, whoever controlled the flames seemed to be well-disposed towards Sabo and his friends. His flames had never tried to hurt any of his friends and never truly harmed Sabo. Even though Sabo now knew that there was _someone_ out there who was responsible for all those burned reports. But those seemed to rather be pranks than anything else. Stupid pranks, but pranks nonetheless.   
He hadn’t told anyone about his finding – he knew Koala and Dragon both would have a fit if they knew – and instead avoided using his flames at all costs. Even though he knew it wasn’t up to him. Not really.   
Sometimes he wondered if maybe it had been the same for Ace. If maybe it was _always_ this way with the Mera Mera no Mi and nobody knew. But he couldn’t imagine it to be true. Ace had depended so much on his Devil Fruit when fighting and Sabo simply couldn’t imagine Ace trusting somebody or something else this much. Even more, Ace would have always felt as if his achievements wouldn’t really have been his.   
And Sabo’s life continued this way: Unsure of himself, always worrying and wondering about whoever it was that controlled his fire and keeping his eyes open for a solution of this mess while continuing to fulfil his responsibilities.

 

It was a month later that Sabo got a first idea about _who_ exactly it was that was controlling his flames.   
He was walking down a street, trying to stay out of trouble, until his ship would be ready to continue its journey to the next island, when he heard some people talking about the War of the Best. It was still something that – even after over two years now – was greatly discussed. It had influenced this world in more ways than anyone could have ever imagined so it was only to be expected.  
These people, however, seemed to be sympathizer of the marines and, like expected, their words about Whitebeard were not the kindest.   
“I’m still happy that that monster died back then. Can you imagine what chaos that monster, Whitebeard, would’ve caused in the last two years if he had survived?”  
“Oh, I’m not so sure. Yes, he might’ve been pretty strong when he was young, but in the end he seemed rather pathetic to me. Couldn’t even save himself or protect his own crew”.  
Some other men started to mock Whitebeard and soon they were all laughing about the man who once was called the strongest man in the world. And while Sabo hurried past them, trying his best to ignore them and the mockery of the man who was like a father to his brother, he felt flames erupting from his fingers. He closed his fists in an attempt to stop the flames from leaving his body – because going up in flames was sure to cause that kind of trouble he was trying to avoid – but it was hopeless.  
It didn’t even take a second for Sabo’s whole body to be surrounded by flames. When he looked up he saw flames reaching high up into the sky whirling around him. He was the centre of a grown firestorm. But why did this other person, who controlled Sabo’s fire, chose this exact moment to cause havoc?   
Sabo had stopped walking, instead looking around for any kind of danger he might have overlooked, that could’ve caused the inferno. But he saw nothing. Instead his flames attacked some men sitting idly at a table outside of a bar, drinking beer. They were just as surprised as Sabo, when the first of them was flung out of his chair, through a window into the bar.   
_They were the men that had insulted Whitebeard._  
And as the flames attacked those men who didn’t even know why they were attacked, Sabo couldn’t help thinking:   
_Could it really be him?_

 

Sabo found his suspicion confirmed some months later, when he next met up with his little brother Luffy. They had met on an island far into the New World. It had been chance even though Sabo had hoped for it to happen, knowing his brother was in the general area. But of course, his little brother had to get himself into trouble, _again_ , as soon as he arrived on this island.   
And that was how Sabo found himself fighting against _three_ different pirate crews that somehow ended up teaming up against Luffy.   
Of course, Sabo understood why Luffy had picked a fight with those crews: They apparently had been stealing the treasures of the island, selling them for their own profit and killing quite a few of the residents in the process. But if it had been _his_ fight, he would have tried maybe a little bit more of stealth instead of just declaring war to all three captains at the same time. He smiled while he hit one of the enemy pirates scare across his face. Luffy would never change. And if Sabo was truthful, he didn’t want him to.   
As Sabo attacked the next pirate his flames took care of someone that tried to attack Sabo from behind. It had proven to be quite helpful to have flames that would fight on their own to protect Sabo. He still didn’t rely on them completely – always keeping an eye on what happened behind him – but ever since he first got his suspicion about _who_ his flames were controlled by, he had found to trust them more and more. They had always, without fault, protected Sabo to their best ability and – if it was possible without endangering Sabo – also his friends. However, no matter how hard he had tried at one point or another to get his flames to abandon Sabo in favour of Koala, Hack or some unprotected civilians, they had never obeyed his wishes if there was even the smallest of possibilities that Sabo might get hurt because of it. It had led to Sabo himself abandoning his fights to help whoever needed help, knowing the flames would continue to protect him. The only problem was, that Sabo wasn’t as fast as the flames were.   
Today, here on this battlefield, this changed for the first time and erased any doubt Sabo might have had left about _who_ controlled those flames. Sabo had just started a fight with one the first mate of one of the pirate crews. He was a big man and fought with two curved sabres he always kept rotating. Sabo was quite capable of fighting this man and defending himself with his pipe against the sabres while at the same time attacking his opponent.   
But his attention was drawn to Luffy, who fought behind Sabo against the captain of Sabo’s opponent. The captain was even bigger than the first mate and instead of having to use sabres the captain just used his arms in which he apparently had built in blades. Normally Sabo wouldn’t worry about Luffy – he had gotten really strong and there was no doubt in Sabo’s mind he would be pirate king someday – but at this instant he saw how one of the other two captains shoot Luffy with an arrow from behind. And while bullets would just bounce back this arrow had a really sharp head, which would be capable of cutting even rubber and might also be infused with haki. It was aimed right at Luffy’s heart.   
The idiot didn’t notice. Sabo cried out and started running in Luffy’s direction, desperate to save his brother but at the same time knowing he would be too late. He had let his guard down against his own opponent completely, but he didn’t care. His flames would probably save him anyway. They probably wouldn’t listen to Sabo begging them to protect his brother instead of him.   
To his surprise, however, only seconds before the arrow found his goal in Luffy’s heart, a raging storm of flames surrounded Luffy, turning the arrow into ash before it could reach Sabo’s little brother. Luffy looked confused at the flames around him, while Sabo cried out in relief. Then the sabre of Sabo’s own opponent cut through flesh. It had been infested with haki. Sabo fell forward onto his face but smiled nonetheless. Luffy was safe and Sabo now knew without a doubt who it was that controlled his flames.   
_Ace_.

 

Sabo woke up starring at a wooden ceiling. He tried to sit up, but pain shot through his body from his right side, so he let himself fall back again, back onto his pillow. Turning his head sideways he recognised the infirmary of the Sunny. Well, that probably meant he was safe. He held his right hand in front of this face and stared at it.   
_Ace, if it’s you and you can hear me, show me._  
A big, fat smile appeared on Sabo’s face as flames surrounded his hand. It really was him.   
_I’m so happy. I just wish we could actually talk._  
 _Me, too._  
At the response Sabo froze. Could it really be? Would he be able to talk to Ace?  
 _Did you just answer me?_  
 _Did you just hear me?_  
Came the response. Tears of happiness filled Sabo’s eyes. Yes, yes, he did. He could talk to Ace. After all this time he finally was able to talk to Ace. He had thought he would never be able to do that again. And Sabo laughed as flames engulfed his hand, again. Now, that he knew it was Ace, it felt warm and comforting.  
“Are you sure, you should play with your fire here? Last time I checked you couldn’t really control it”.  
It was Koala, who had sat on a chair to his left. He hadn’t noticed before. She looked tired and worried. Sabo grinned at her.   
“I’m not worried about that anymore”, he explained.  
 _Even though I’m really pissed now about all those burned reports._  
He could feel a mixture of guilt and mischievousness originating from Ace. Sabo shook his head smiling. In hindsight he really had no idea why he only realized this late that it was Ace who controlled his fire.  
 _You just can’t stay mad at me, can you?_  
Sabo ignored Ace as Koala spoke again:  
“Really? How come?”  
Sabo grinned again.   
“I finally know who controls my flames”.  
 _They are really more my flames than yours._  
“Who? You mean how, right?”  
Sabo shook his head.   
“I realized some time back that the reason I couldn’t control my flames sometimes was because I never controlled them to begin with. It just happened at times that the one controlling my flames wanted to do the same with them as I did”.  
Koala stared at him wide-eyed.  
“What?! How long did you know? And why didn’t you tell me? What would’ve happened if that someone had wanted to hurt you?”  
“A few months or something. And the other person never seemed harmful. In fact, he always chose to protect me over who I wanted to protect”.  
Koala looked at him, her eyes trailing his body.  
“Until now”.  
Sabo nodded.   
“Until now. And that was how I finally knew, without a doubt, who it was. Because there is only one person who would _always_ choose to protect me over anyone else _except_ when the other person was Luffy”.  
Now Koala stared at him in open shock.   
“Are you telling me –”  
Sabo nodded.   
“It’s Ace. And we both always knew that, if it came to choosing between one of us and Luffy, we would always choose Luffy”.  
Koala started to say something but halted, looking away. Sabo knew she disagreed. To her Sabo mattered more than Luffy. But that wouldn’t change that Sabo would always choose Luffy over himself. Just as Ace would.   
_He’s our little brother_ , Ace said and it sounded apologetic. He probably felt bad for his choice.   
_I know. It’s our job to protect him_ , Sabo agreed.   
For a moment it was quiet. Then the door opened and a crying Luffy ran in, hugging Sabo so tight, Sabo’s wound started to hurt again. But he didn’t say anything. He just smiled. He had both his brothers back.   
_Tell Luffy I’m sorry for dying_ , Ace’s voice said in Sabo’s head. _I broke my promise._  
Smiling a sad smile Sabo whispered the words of his one brother into the ear of his other brother. Luffy only started to cry even more, demanding to know how Sabo knew how Ace felt.   
Sabo explained Luffy everything and, in the end, both cried and hugged each other with Ace’s flames surrounding them both, warming them without hurting. And in his head Sabo heard Ace’s voice:  
 _Crybabies, both of you!_


End file.
